Bungaraya Island Resort

What a fabulous hotel! Glorious location on a lovely beach. Excellent accommodation in a rainforest setting. We had a large luxurious room, very comfortable beds, with terrace overlooking the forest and glimpses of the sea. The food was excellent with a wide variety of dishes. Staff were extremely friendly and could not do more to assist. Such a great place to relax. We were so sorry to leave.

4 +. This is a beautiful spot off the North Borneo coast near Kota Kinabalu, an ideal location to decompress after some hectic sightseeing in Singapore and up the Kinabatangan river for a wildlife delight. This could be a five and certainly the staff deserve at least that but couple of things detract. Lack of free shuttle back to town - staff and guests need to come and go and opening these shuttles up to guests would enhance the options. The hotel is also in need of some renovation (one of restaurants is under repair) and modernisation. The presence of a hobby cat got me all excited but apparently regulations mean they can’t allow use - I guess because of need for supervision and rescue facilities. Shame.

This is a wonderful place to stay-a little piece of heaven. We loved everything about it. We had a lodge on the beach with plunge pool - it was beautiful with everything you could want. Staff are friendly and helpful and good really good.

We really enjoyed our stay at this resort. While it is billed as a 5 star resort, by Australian standards it would be a 4 star resort. The accomodation is really special - spacious timber villas throughout the jungle. We stayed in a 2 bedroom deluxe villa and it was furtherest from the central facilities but the buggy service is very efficicient and it was nice to be high in the jungle with some ocean views. We enjoyed really nice meals at the Longhouse - make sure you visit the wine cellar underneath as it is very impressive. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. The main areas for improvment is some of the upkeep (eg the pool decking), and picking up the rubbish on the high tide line of the beach. While sadly the sea in this area contains a lot of plastic, some of the larger plastic items washed ashore could be easily collected. We read many reviews about sandflies but they weren't an issue for us. We also had massages at the spa - nice but pricey. The included boat trip over is on a slow lugger. Those who suffer from seasixkness wouldn't enjoy the trip. We had to get a private speed boat back at our cost to meet a flight time. It was a much quicker and more pleasant trip.

I stayed at Bungaraya Resort on Gaya Island with my partner and it was one of the worst experiences we’ve ever had. The rooms were unsafe and unhygienic - we had to move rooms every night due to leaks over the bed, bug nests in the wardrobe, multiple lizards crawling everywhere in the room and bathroom, and stained bedding. On one night, the leak became so severe we had to pack our belongings in the middle of the night. The resort environment was shocking: trash and sewage were visible on the beach, the water was brown, dirty, and foul-smelling, the coral was dead, and there were no fish, despite the property being advertised as an eco-luxury resort. Food was expensive and did not taste good. It’s advertised as 2 restaurants on site but there was only 1 open so we were forced to eat at the same place everyday as there were no other options. The service was appalling. When we refused to pay the final checkout bill, the duty manager (Felix) and resort manager (Karl Sims) refused to let us leave the island and held us on the boat until we paid. We were forced to pay under duress, which was extremely distressing. To quote the duty manager when I refuse This resort is misrepresented in every way - unsafe rooms, terrible service, and a completely neglected natural environment. Avoid it at all costs. Read the other negative reviews and also the responses from the poor management. They only care about profits and do not care about their guests or the environment. If you care about the planet, do not stay here, because this resort has ruined the natural environment and visiting is only making it worse.